Golfin Online Coaching

Golfin online coaching is a new internet golf instruction platform based out of the UK that allows you to receive expert coaching and work at your own pace.  Their model is based on matching golfers with a PGA qualified coach within the Golfin network that is best suited to helping the player improve their game, or in my case, tackle your greatest demons.

Currently, Golfin offers the three packages pictured above.  Figuring out which Golfin online coaching package you want to go with is fairly easy, and if you aren’t sure, the Golfin team is very helpful in narrowing that down for you.  I would just stress that it’s important to have a clear idea of what you want to get out of the experience in order to make the correct choice.

I happened upon Golfin from a follower of my ongoing “Wedge Yips” series who recommended them as a possible solution to my woes.  So I got signed up and started the process via a Bespoke package.  I’ll walk you through the process of getting started and what I’m calling “Phase 1” of my Golfin experience.  Phase 2 will come after I spend more time with what I’ve learned!

Getting Started with Golfin

Golfin has a whole signup process to get you setup for your future instruction.  The first step is essentially to fill out a form to figure out what you want to work on.  From there, you will receive some introductory videos as well as instructions to download the Golfin and CoachNow apps.  The Golfin app contains videos, tips, and interactive scorecards for courses in the UK.  The CoachNow app is how you will interact with your coach.  Meanwhile, Golfin will select the right coach for you from their network.  Once the selection is made, a video consultation will be setup between you and your new coach.

Note: if you are quite a bit outside of the UK at the moment, scheduling can be difficult because of the timezone differences.  The coaches are pretty flexible, but you may have to be flexible as well for the time being.  Golfin will be extending their reach in the future.

Online Video Consultation

I was matched up with short game and putting specialist, Andy Gorman.  During my first video consultation with Andy, I learned that he is actually based just down the road, literally, from where I go for work in the UK.  Small world!

During this consultation, Andy asked me to explain what I’m looking to address through this process.  I explained my wedge woes to which he assured me was extremely common these days.  His next question was “what would a successful outcome of this process look like for you?”  My response was simply “to make clean and consistent contact with my wedges…and not being scared.”  To my surprise, Andy said “good, this will be no problem.”

Without having seen me hit a single ball, Andy provided a lot of good perspective for the wedge game during our chat.  I was excited to get to work, but most importantly, very hopeful following this initial conversation.

Getting to Work

The first step is to get your coach some videos of your swing.  There are specific details to follow so the videos are usable, so take notes when it’s explained to you!  Andy wanted me to record ten videos from two different angles.  If you don’t have a buddy to record for you, I just used a claw tripod with my iPhone and it worked perfect.  Essentially he wanted to see down the line and from the side.  It’s key to make sure you have enough space to view your full swing, contact with the ball, and preferably a little ball flight/direction.

I recorded my videos which included a mixed bag of shots ranging from horrible to pretty good.  Man, I tried my best to focus on all the things I’ve “discovered” and implemented from my wedge yips adventure.  Unfortunately, there were still plenty of things working against me that made success almost impossible.  My videos were off to Andy for evaluation as I eagerly awaited his feedback.  Hopefully he had something up his sleeve to finally put this curse behind me.

The Feedback

Waiting for Andy’s feedback on my videos was humorously nerve racking.  It’s not like I was waiting on some medical results, or if I made the team or something.  Alas, I received a notification that there were messages waiting for me in my CoachNow app.  Sure enough, Andy had uploaded two videos with commentary and illustrations to tell me what I had going on.

There were three major things Andy pointed out to me.  The picture at the start of this section was the most eye opening to me.  At address, I would regularly have my arms hanging so my hands were straight down at best, and often inverted so they were pointing almost at my ankles.  Andy explained there’s no way I can possibly get my arms through to make the right impact and the club is going to have to change paths a lot.  (In short.)

The second thing Andy pointed out to me is an old foe, but I thought I was making progress.  Turns out, I’m still not getting enough of my weight setup on my front leg.  As a result, I was getting absolutely zero hip turn around my front leg.  You can see how much I had to sway to get to a good impact position in the photo above.  This caused my third issue.  This sway forward was causing me to move my ahead a lot (as you can see) and a severe lack of stability.  There’s zero chance I’m making consistent contact with so much movement.

Next Steps

So off I went to the dome to work on correcting what Andy saw in my wedge game.  Get my arms/hands in a better position, weight in my left foot, head still.  Was I fixed right away?  Of course not, but I hit more good real wedge shots than I have in god knows how long.  I’ll tell you this though – I was more uncomfortable swinging the club than I have been in a long time.  While I could easily feel the difference and understand the logic, my body was so used to doing it incorrectly.  Fine, it’s new and I just need to get used to it.  Only one problem – now I feel like I don’t even know how to start the swing…

Fortunately, Andy knew just what to tell me when I shared that concern.  Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out what he told me and how I’ll progress!

Golfin Online Coaching – Part 1 Final Thoughts

My initial response to the videos was actually kind of funny to me.  I shared this insight with Andy, but I had this visceral defensive/angry reaction to Andy explaining to me what I was doing wrong.  Let me be clear, he did a great job explaining it and was super positive and constructive.  It was purely a weird emotional reaction from me that I think was based on having to directly face how bad my reality was.  What I saw grossed me out so bad, my natural response was to defend myself and reject.  The reality was, I knew I was going through Golfin online coaching because I had a big problem and obviously I needed to fix things.  So I swallowed my pride and absorbed some excellent direction from Andy in both videos.

In addition to the instruction over the two videos I sent Andy, he sent me a link to a third video.  As part of his Golfin process, he combined the two videos into one and added a third part where he went out on the range and further explained what he explained in the videos.  He demonstrated a lot of the motions and what I need to really focus on when I go to the range next.  Now I felt like I really knew what to practice and what it should look and feel like.  Hopefully we’re finally on the right path!

You can follow Golfin on Twitter for free tips/drills from my guy, Andy, as well as other Golfin coaches at @golfinclub